Part Three
Twenty minutes later,
Baker was descending for a landing, the shrill howl of the engines
quieting somewhat. Ash and Phoenix had carried what remained of their
squad-mates and their gear to the landing site while Smith and Martin
carried long sacks full of confiscated firearms on their backs. Ash
and Phoenix began to lay the dead out in the tilt-rotor, Watanabe,
O'Neil, and Cortez. The confiscated weapons were stowed in cargo
compartments and as time passed Ash and Phoenix had hope in their
hearts that maybe the CO would leave the kids to survive on their
own, maybe he just didn't care enough to think about them anymore. It
was not long until he found out the answer.
“All right, waste the
kids and lets get back.” CO Green said as he pulled a cigar from
one of the pouches on his belt and brought a thin rectangular object
up to ignite his cigar before he bit down on it. Ash. Phoenix,
Martin, and Smith all turned to regard the CO, unsure of who he was
trying to shovel the guilt upon. “Damnit, stop looking at me like
some damned Gutterwaste pieces of shit and -do it-.” Green shouted,
with his helmet off I was easy to see the throbbing vein of his anger
coursing through him Still, no one spoke. “Do I have to pick for
you, you pack of pussies? Ash, you do it. You're alphabetically
first.”
“Only if you're going by
first-name and you never call me Ash, you call me Scarborough.”
“Well I just fucking
ordered, deal with it -Ashley-, grease the fucking kids and lets get
the fuck home.”
Ash wanted so badly to
empty the rest of his ammunition in the face of CO Green, he wanted
nothing more than to feel the man's neck trapped in his hands as he
strangled the bastard to death. “Why?”
“Did you just fucking
ask me a question, Scarborough? I gave you an order, now fucking do
it!”
“I... I'll do it, sir.”
Smith volunteered
“No! Scarborough is
doing it and he's going to do it now. Plug those little fucks and
lets get home!”
Phoenix began to offer as
well but it was clear the CO had decided to make this personal,
Martin was not envious of anyone around. The anger in the CO was
building up pressure in his head and it could boil over any second.
Ash looked at he rifle carefully, as if he had never used it. He
carefully pulled back the bolt to see a round chambered and a small
green display on the side of the rifle had the ammo-count at [31]
rounds. It felt heavy, now, cumbersome, leaden like a weight that was
making him sink into an ocean of everything he did not want and he
would drown sooner than later. Carefully he flicked the flashlight on
and off before moving to run his finger along the sight-rail After
some contemplation the words of the CO were beginning to pour in
again. He wished he could have been deaf for that moment, this whole
battle.
“AND THAT IS WHY YOUR
MOTHER SHOULD'A THROWN YOU OUT THE FUCKING WINDOW ON HER WAY BACK TO
THE WHOREHOUSE!” CO Green screamed in Ash's ear. Phoenix had heard
the entire string of the insults and was frankly impressed and
slightly unnerved at how little they provoked his best friend--
Phoenix wanted to kill him for those insults alone. He had known
Ash's mother and she was the best mother she could be. Closing his
eyes, Ash lowered the rifle and leaned his head back, thinking and
contemplating while doing his best not to to kill his CO.
“YOU AREN'T A PART OF
HABORYM ANYMORE, YOU MISERABLE PIECE OF SHIT, YOU'RE GOING TO BE
WORKING THE GUTTER UNTIL THE END OF YOUR FUCKING LIFE, DO YOU HEAR
ME, SCARBOROUGH? SHOOT THEM, YOU FUCKING WEAKLING!” CO continued,
still in full force.
With a sigh Ash looked his
rifle over again, wondering why it still fell so heavy. The words his
CO was screaming at him were beginning to penetrate his mental shield
and after that he was not sure what would happen. Something bad,
probably. Phoenix was put between a rock and a hard-place there. He
could not take Ash's place now although he was pretty sure if the
three of them ever ended up in a combat mission again that CO Green
would die by friendly fire. CO just kept going, pointing out
everything that made Ash who he was as a part of his failure to be a
soldier or policeman and that he would lose his job entirely if he
did not follow those orders. The pressure inside Ash's own head was
mounting and he could feel the anger offering itself up to him. It
was like closing your eyes to surrender to sleep after a very hard
day. It promised to help you, to feel good when you indulged it. With
the full run of combat stims used up, Ash was hurting everywhere and
he finally looked his screaming CO in the eyes.
Ash set his jaw and grit
his teeth until he was sure they would crack, his hand wrapped
tightly around the grip as his finger found the trigger and he
brought the weapon to his should, his eye running right down the
sight-rail Slowly he brought the sights upon the boy who seemed
resigned to death but his eyes were more focused on his sisters. He
could be okay with it but the sisters were different and each spent
time lined up within the sights of the rifle of roughly equal
amounts. “FIRE YOU FUCKING FILTH, KILL THEM NOW BEFORE I--”
Ash's finger squeezed hard
and his rifle began to buck slightly in his hand. His eyes shut tight
as ht held the trigger, until all thirty-one rounds, had been fired.
He lowered his gun and slouched before turning to look at his CO. The
children still stood in fear, having watched all those rounds fly up,
into the sky. Ash held back a tear well enough but just one, the
second one could not be contained.
“RELOAD,
SHIT-FOR-BRAINS, YOU'RE A REAL COMEDIC GENIUS!”
Ash did as he was told
before the order started being screamed in his ear again.
“No.” Ash said calmly.
The CO tightened his hands
in to fists and growled “YOU WILL DO IT BECAUSE IT IS A FUCKING
DIRECT ORDER!”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“What the FUCK did you
just say to me?”
“I said 'Go fuck
yourself'!”
Phoenix and Ash shared a
glance and Ash's own eyes flicked gently in the direction of the
children as Ash turned around to the expect fest that collided with
his jaw. Staggered, he managed to stand up as the CO closed the gap
fairly quick and sent a hard punch to Ash's stomach, causing him to
double over which ended up being very convenient for the knee to the
face that he took as he allowed the CO to assault him. Phoenix had
already done the work, having given the children the declaration for
them to flee. They did as much, running back into ruined, burning
settlement, right back to their home with their mother still slumped
in the corner. Phoenix cleared his throat, checking his watch and
nodded at Baker.
“CO Green, sir, we are
being ordered to return right now, no detours, directly home.”
“Fine, I'll just make
sure this miserable fuck never had a decent life again.”
“Yes, sir, spinning up
now.”
Ash slumped into Phoenix
who helped haul him into the tilt-rotor and strap in. The bruises and
swelling were the only real issue. One of his eyes could barely open
and somewhere he had split his lip.
“I don't know what
they're gonna do about this, brother, but... this is probably the end
of your job, unless they put you in the Gutter. I hear they're low on
manpower again.” Phoenix said, leaning in as close as he could and
speaking just high enough to be held over the engines as they took
flight.
“I don't care,”
“I get where you're
coming from... wish I could've done more, could have changed his
mind.”
“Doesn't matter, I'd
really starting to see all the shit behind the scenery in Espher and
it's already disgusting.”
“You're probably going
to lose your job and all the things that come with it, back to being
strictly civilian if they don't just throw you in the prison system.”
“Yea, well, the
difference in kill those children and prison is that I could sleep at
night if they threw me in prison.” Ash spoke aloud, intentionally,
as he watched the settlement smolder like coal, burning down.
Being set free in the
outlying settlements of Espher wasn't a good thing but at least this
way they had a fighting chance, especially with the looted revolver
Phoenix had 'traded' with the boy. Maybe they could make their way to
another settlement before they were too tired, maybe they could
actually have some sort of burial... but mostly likely a caravan
would take them to a settlement where they could find a place... If
the other tilt-rotor squads didn't wipe all of them off the map, too.
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